the impact of core phonics curriculum

researchers examined the effects of the 95 phonics core program on the acadience reading scores of k-3 students between fall 2021 and fall 2022. the program builds core phonics skills through 30 minutes of daily instruction. analysis showed positive impacts for the composite scores of rising first graders who started below grade level and the composite scores for all rising third graders. positive impacts were also found for rising second graders, specifically on the nonsense word fluency correct letter sounds and whole words read assessment measures. comparing the treatment and control groups at each level revealed that structured literacy’s positive impact on literacy achievement was sustained through the summer and into the next school year (schechter & lynch, 2022).

related resources

interested in reading more? access a companion article about this new report written by lxd research for more information. and then contact us for help in implementing an evidence-based, structured literacy curriculum in your school or district today.

when examining why research is an important pillar for our education system and pedagogies, it’s important to look at what it is about research that adds distinction or sturdiness to a teaching practice. although most teachers enter the profession equipped with at least some teaching theory and their best intentions, not all teachers leave their education degree programs with the depth of knowledge to offer students the type of skill instruction necessary to thrive.

enter research.

it provides a foundation for best practice and effectiveness for any curriculum, product, or intervention. with the movement toward embracing the body of evidence called the science of reading, some educators—despite their best intentions—are realizing that they did not receive training in evidence-based practices for teaching foundational literacy skills. but teachers know better than anyone that learning is lifelong and that when we know better, we can do better. using the extensive body of knowledge that exists today, we can make well-informed decisions about instructional practice.

why research matters for educators now more than ever

teachers are facing a lot these days. classes are large, and student needs are on the rise. teachers have an
overwhelming task, a limited amount of time, and a lot of pressure to “do the right thing.” after all, their students’ futures are in their hands. teachers don’t need a range of curricula choices to weed through. what teachers need are solutions that need solutions that come backed by a guarantee that they were built based on research that clearly demonstrates that the instructional methods and resources work with real students in schools just like theirs. they need solutions that work for every student, including their english learners, their special education students, and their students with dyslexia or another specific language impairment. they also need to help their high-achieving students stay engaged and become stronger readers with explicit, direct instruction. the students are why research matters to state departments of education, teachers, coaches, school leaders, and all those who have a stake in the future of their students. in fact, more and more states are requiring that their literacy curricula have evidence, such as proven essa levels, districts to be able to purchase and implement the curricula in their school…

access the full story now: what you’ll learn

are you ready for more insights on why research is an important pillar for our education system? download the full story and learn:

• the difference between evidence-aligned and evidence-based
• top four measures to look for in education research as consider student instruction
• why evidence for essa, digital promise, and essa levels matter and what they are
• the role of efficacy studies as you build your literacy toolkit
• a look at successes from the field

a 2000 national reading panel report summarized several decades of reading research and concluded that effective reading instruction addresses these five foundational areas—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

reading comprehension is the sense-making skill—comprehension instruction ensures students can make sense of what they read, draw correct inferences, and connect what they’ve read to what they already know. as comprehension skills deepen, students go beyond just a surface understanding of what they read. the end goal of comprehension instruction is to nurture independent, proficient, and critical readers (and thinkers).

comprehension instruction should equip students with a range of strategies to help them understand what they are reading across different types of text and subject areas, and help them appreciate that comprehension requires more effort than ability.

engage students with activities and games to strengthen reading comprehension skills

as students shift from learning to read to reading to learn, incorporating interactive games and activities can provide opportunities to practice and strengthen reading comprehension skills and contextualizes what you’re teaching in an interactive, fun way. here are five additional ways reading comprehension games and activities can help students become better readers:

• gain critical reading confidence skills
• practice responding to the text
• repurpose a game they have seen or played
• receive instant feedback to learn from mistakes
• offer a multisensory learning opportunity

we’ve ordered the games and activities by grade level to help you select a good fit for your students’ needs. we recommend you download our 95 comprehension process continuum to see a seven-tiered sequence for teaching comprehension strategies.

kindergarten and first grade

1. sentence meaning—sentence pantomime 

this activity will help students identify the meaning of a sentence.

make several short short sentence strips (read a book; sing a song.) and distribute. have students work in pairs. student one silently chooses a sentence and pantomimes it. student two watches, guesses by selecting one of the sentence strips, and reads it aloud. if the guess is correct, the student keeps the strip. if incorrect, the student guesses again.

2. sentence meaning—name that rhyme

this activity uses common nursery rhymes to identify sentence meaning by matching title cards to sentence strips.

create nursery rhyme title cards and nursery rhyme event sentence strips (e.g., title: twinkle, twinkle little star; sentence strip: how i wonder what you are). place titles face up. students will take turns selecting from sentence strips placed face down, reading it aloud, and matching to the right title.

second and third grade

3. monitoring for understanding—ask and answer

students work in pairs to generate and answer questions on a text they are reading and then exchange roles of asker and answerer. students select from a set of question cards (who, what, where, when, why, how, etc.) to catalyze creating questions about the text they are considering.

4. narrative text structure—story grammar yammer

for this activity, provide a story organizer for students to use to help them identify the story’s elements. include blocks in the organizer for characters, setting, problem, events, and solution.

students read the text and use the organizer to help them identify and record the characters, setting, problem, events, and solution in the provided blocks. students can work individually or in pairs.

fourth and fifth grade

5. narrative text structure—story mapping

in this activity, students use a graphic organizer to record information related to story elements. this is a variation of #4 but with more details for older students—the organizer can be similar—just add multiple blocks for characters, setting, problem, events. in addition, provide a map template with title and author in a block at the center, with links out in a circle around the center title block presenting a range of relevant questions (e.g., who is your favorite character and why? what is the plot of this story?)

6. text analysis—fiction and nonfiction

students sort books into fiction and nonfiction.

provide a range of books and texts and an organizer with horizontal columns for title, genre, and reason. genres might include biography, poetry, fantasy, folktale, mythology, mystery, historical fiction, etc. have students discuss several books with a partner and fill out their organizer.

7. monitoring for understanding—question cards

students answer questions to comprehend text.

provide narrative or expository text at students’ reading level range. create a series of question cards (e.g., do you understand what you just read? why or why not?; paraphrase what you just read; what do you think is going to happen next?; what is the main idea?; how does what you just read relate to your own life?)

all ages

8. puppet show story retelling

work with younger students to identify the storyline and characters in a story and make simple puppets and settings.

older students can work independently or in pairs. use simple materials for making the puppets and settings: paper, cardboard, fabric, and popsicle sticks.

9. interview your character

older students can work in pairs to interview characters, taking turns as interviewer and character.

you can adapt this to help younger students with comprehension by interviewing them about the characters in a story. example questions for characters might include: can you introduce yourself to me? where did you grow up? who would star in a movie about you?

in conclusion

it’s important to keep in mind the goal of helping our students to comprehend what they read. literacy expert lousia moats sums it up well:

“as with any complex skill, learning to read requires both systematic instruction and many hours of practice at a level at which the student can be successful. those who learn early and well, whose word reading skills are accurate and automatic, and who can comprehend what they read, are more likely to read widely, to gain knowledge and vocabulary from reading, and to enjoy reading for pleasure.”

—louisa moats, how children learn to read: toward evidence-aligned lesson planning (world bank group, 2022)

references

for more activities and example organizer templates, visit the florida center for reading research: for educators, student center activities.

95 percent group products to support comprehension

start here

download the comprehension process continuum to see a seven-tiered sequence for teaching comprehension strategies.

download the lxd research comprehension 3-6 efficacy report by rachel schechter, phd.

95 comprehension, grades 3-6—set students up for reading success in grades 3-6 with the direct, explicit, and systematic instruction they need on comprehension processes, within targeted intervention groups.

morphemes—morphological awareness is the ability to recognize, understand, and use the units of meaning that make up words, helping build student reading comprehension skills. here are two resources aimed to help students in k-3 and 4-12:

morpheme magic: lessons to build morphological awareness grades 4-12

morphemes for little ones: bringing the magic of language into k-3 classrooms

interested in learning more?

contact a literacy expert.

defining phonological awareness

phonological awareness refers to the overall awareness of the sound structure of language; phonological awareness includes an awareness of the larger sound structures of spoken words: syllables, rhymes, onsets, and rimes. these structures and the activities that help to reinforce them are now often being referred to as phonological sensitivity. while these activities have sometimes sat at the heart of early literacy instruction with an assumption that they were skills children needed to acquire before they could move on, we now know that mastery of these “skills” isn’t necessary for children to begin direct instruction on phonemes, the smallest units of sound in spoken language.

“ideally,” stewart reflects, “young children would come to preschool and kindergarten already engaged in word play with poems, songs, syllable games, rhyming games, etc. literacy instructors would continue that word play while also building their phoneme awareness and letter recognition.”

the most recent research even suggests that children who are lacking in phonological sensitivity are completely capable of mastering phonemic awareness skills—a subset of phonological awareness skills— with explicit, direct instruction.

defining phonemic awareness

phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the smallest units of sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. as it stands, it is one of the key skills in preparing children for fluent reading, and one of the earliest indicators and predictors of reading difficulty. using a diagnostic screener in order to understand what your students know and what they still need to learn is an effective way to gather information.

previously, researchers believed that working with the sounds first, followed by introducing the letters was the path to reading acquisition. but as we learn more about the neural pathways involved with language and literacy development, these views are changing.

laura stewart weighs in on some of the nuances involved. “while phonemic awareness should begin with focusing on the sounds in a spoken word, a quick progression(often in the same lesson) to working with both the phonemes and the graphemes ( the associated letter(s) that represent the sound) is important. it is especially helpful for our struggling readers, as the grapheme is an anchor to securing the phoneme.”

when teaching phonemic awareness skills there is usually a suggested continuum that begins with an easier skill and moves on accordingly when students are ready. phonemic awareness skills that are critical to building a strong literacy foundation are:

• phoneme isolation:
  • starting the initial phoneme in a word:  /b/ in the word bat
  • continuing with the final phoneme in a word:  /t/ in the word bat
  • moving on to the medial phoneme in a word” /a/ in the word bat 
• phoneme segmentation and blending:
  • segmenting phonemes in a word means being able to listen to a word and identify each of the sounds inside the word: cat → /k/ /a/ /t/
  • blending phonemes means you can hear separate phonemes and put them together in order to say a whole word /ch/ /i/ /p/ → chip
• phoneme manipulation: addition, deletion, and substitution of phonemes within words.
  while not necessarily a “gate keeping” skill in terms of reading fluency, practicing manipulation of sounds with letters can be helpful to reading and spelling.
  • addition: adding a phoneme to an existing word. if you start with the word top, and you add /s/, now you have stop. as students become more comfortable with this, they can add multiple phonemes simultaneously.
  • deletion: the opposition of addition. instead of adding a phoneme, you take a phoneme away. so if you start with the word glove and you take away /g/, now you have the word love.
  • substitution: this is a bit like combining both addition and deletion. you first take away a phoneme and then add another—creating an entirely different word. if you start with the word cape, and delete the /k/ (leaving ape), and then you add /sh/, you end up with a completely new word: shape.

check out our post on the blog for specific lesson plans or activities.

phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness breakdown

when speaking about phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness, there is a tendency to compare them. the truth is that phonemic awareness is a subset of skills within the larger skill set of phonological awareness. we can think of this like an umbrella: phonological awareness is the large umbrella and under that umbrella, phonemic awareness is a smaller set of specific skills that are critical to reading development.

while children who are phonologically sensitive at an early age can often move into more difficult skill acquisition sooner, phonological sensitivity isn’t something that needs to be checked off before moving onto phonemic awareness skill instruction. in fact, teaching phonemic awareness skills while children are moving toward greater phonological sensitivity is highly encouraged.

the role of phonemic awareness in literacy

the role that phonemic awareness plays in language and literacy development hasn’t always been as clear. for a long time, these skills were glossed over in terms of direct instruction, undervalued as a crucial foundational skill or perhaps something that teachers assumed children would learn before they arrived at formal schooling.

as the research gained momentum and depth educators became increasingly aware of the importance of explicit instruction of phonemic awareness skills. even beginning to understand why some children seem to be able to read on grade level until they get to 3rd or 4th grade—at which point they begin to have more and more difficulty with reading and spelling.

the work that phonemic instruction skills does is to help children and then older students understand that words are made up of smaller units of sound. when there has been direct and in-depth instruction on phonemes along with their corresponding graphemes, the work of both decoding (breaking down a word into its sounds in order to read it) and encoding (putting sounds/graphemes together in order to build a world in written language) becomes much easier; even for more sophisticated, multisyllabic words that become more common in the upper elementary grades.

the role of phonological awareness in literacy

phonological sensitivity begins with modeling the way language works with young children. ensuring that young children have plenty of exposure to songs, poems, and stories—which often include a multitude of opportunities to notice and talk about rhythm and rhyme—is a great way to immerse children in the components of phonological awareness. while many children come to school already having some phonological sensitivity, some do not, and this “language play” is central to the early years, especially pre-k and k.

if, when children are introduced to the first skills of phonemic awareness, you notice there are gaps in their knowledge, it is sensible to back up and engage children in more explicit instruction of the larger sound structures of spoken words: syllables, rhymes, onsets, and rimes while continuing with phoneme awareness activities.

strategies for teaching phonemic awareness

when children understand the graphemes that represent the phonemes early on, it goes a long way towards both reading and spelling. here are some strategies that help ensure you are meeting the needs of all children with phonemic awareness instruction.

1. primary focus should be on teaching students what they hear with each sound and how it should feel in their mouth. there are so many phonemes in the english language that it can feel confusing for students to be able to articulate them all in the beginning. teaching what students should hear with each sound and how it feels in their mouth and throat when a phoneme is “voiced” or “unvoiced,” helps them understand the articulation and auditory qualities of the phoneme. additionally, teachers can first offer a photo to show how the mouth forms each phoneme, and then a mirror so students can see what shape their mouth makes when they say /p/ or  /b/ compared to /m/ or /n/.
2. connect phonemes to letters (graphophonemic connections) to benefit students when learning to read and write. phonemic awareness instruction should always begin with just the sounds in order to help children focus on the phoneme sequences in spoken words. typically, linking letter knowledge and phonemes to read and spell words can begin soon thereafter, depending on the students’ proficiency with phonemes; however, phonemic awareness skills should continue to be taught in k-1 (and for older students as indicated) as a distinct strand of the lesson that parallels phonics instruction. when phonemic awareness instruction is connected to the representative letters or graphemes, it helps children with orthographic mapping and makes it easier to retain and recognize words when they see them again.
3. make it multisensory. research on working memory and cognition shows us that there are benefits of multisensory experiences when teaching different literacy skills. when students simultaneously incorporate more than one sense (i.e., writing with a pencil or air writing with their whole arm while saying the sound or phoneme, it activates multiple parts of the brain (whole brain learning) than when just saying a sound or just writing the representative letter(s).
4. i do, we do, you do model. when you offer a gradual release instruction model, students have the opportunity to see a skill first modeled for them explicitly, then to practice with the instructor, receiving immediate feedback and/or reteaching if needed, and last, the opportunity to practice on their own—increasing confidence, independence and student ownership of their learning. the repeated practice of a skill also increases the chance of retention.
5. assess, monitor and differentiate accordingly. when students experience difficulty in acquiring phoneme awareness, teachers can assess and provide reinforcement and reteaching for those students who need more. using a diagnostic assessments such as the 95 phonemic awareness screener for intervention™—which maps skill deficits directly to specific lessons in the 95 phonemic awareness suite™, allows teachers to confidently and efficiently make instructional decisions based on each student’s needs.

practical activities to enhance phonemic awareness

there are many engaging activities for teachers to use when teaching phonemic awareness.  here are a few activities that can be easily adapted for either home or school.

• word construction: when you have a few minutes (this is a good one to do in the car or while kids are lining up to go outside!) challenge children to listen to all the sounds and try to guess the word you are thinking of. pull the sounds in your chosen word apart and say them one by one. ex. if your word is “grape” you would say /g/ /r/ /ā/ /p/  (bonus points if students can name why the letter a has it’s long vowel sound!
• word deconstruction: this is very similar to the activity above, except instead of making words by putting their sounds together, you say a word and ask students to tell you what sounds they hear inside the word. ex. “what sounds do you hear in the word ‘late’”? students should say, “/l/ /ā/ /t/.

you can play these same types of games with phoneme manipulation (addition, deletion, substitution). it might sound like “if i start with the word “late” and take away the /l/, what is the new word? or, “if i start with the word “ran” and change the /r/ to /p/, what is the new word? the idea of changing one sound to make an entirely new word is often a pretty surprising idea for children!

looking for more? check out a longer list of phonemic awareness activities on our insights page!

frequently asked questions

what are the main phonological awareness skills?

phonological sensitivity, as it is now more frequently referred to, often (or maybe ideally) begins at home. it refers to the idea that children become more and more aware of the large structures of spoken language such as:

words 

syllables (counting and categorizing)

onset and rime in a word (c-at, b-at, m-at the first sound before the vowel in a one syllable word being the onset and and the vowel and other consonant sound being the rime)

rhyming.

within phonological awareness skills are those at the phoneme level—which are referred to as phonemic awareness skills.

at what age should phonemic awareness be introduced?

phonemic awareness can be introduced to children as soon as they can understand words. very young children can understand rhyming words and notice when words begin with the same sound. an important precursor to all of this work is to teach basic listening skills and for kids to ideally be immersed in a language-rich environment–both spoken and written. speaking to children in a way that helps to increase their working vocabulary and reading to children regularly all helps to cultivate a greater awareness of understanding of how we use language to communicate and seek understanding.

final thoughts

there is a lot of talk about the importance of phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness and the truth is that they exist in the same space—as foundational skills that children need to have in their tool box as they learn to read and write.

as teachers are tasked with not only teaching foundational reading skills to their emerging readers but also helping to close gaps with students that may not have gotten the instruction they needed to read on grade level, there are great resources to help make phonemic awareness planning and instruction a much easier process.

with 95 percent group’s 95 phonemic awareness suite, teachers have access to multiple resources,  tools, manipulatives, scripts and options for wrap-around professional learning and coaching to help make these critical skills easier to teach.

sources

1. adams, m.j. (1990). beginning to read: thinking and learning about print. cam-bridge, ma: mit press
2. ashby, j., mcbride, m., naftel, s., o’brien, e., paulson, l. h., kilpatrick, d. a, & moats, l. c. (2023). teaching phoneme awareness in 2023: a guide for educators.
3. castiglioni-spalten, m. & ehri l.c., (2003). phonemic awareness instruction: contribution of articulatory segmentation to novice beginners’ reading and spelling. scientific studies of reading, 7(1), p. 25.
4. davidson, marcia, usaid, and global education summit. “scripted reading lessons and evidence for their efficacy.” united states agency for international development, 2015. accessed january 30, 2024. https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/davidson.pdf.
5. farrell, mary l., white, nancy cushen; multisensory teaching of basic language skills, ch. 2, p.48
6. national reading panel (u.s.) & national institute of child health and human development (u.s.). (2000)
7. teaching to the whole brain. (2021, june 2). ascd. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/teaching-to-the-whole-brain
8. the reading league. (2022, june). https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/the-reading-league-curriculum-evaluation-guidelines-2022.pdf. retrieved january 31, 2024, https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/the-reading-league-curriculum-evaluation-guidelines-2022.pdf

what is decodable text?

let’s start with: what is decodable text? this is from one of my favorite papers, which i’m sure many of you are familiar with—ending the reading wars: reading acquisition from novice to expert, written by anne castles, kathleen rastle, and kate nation.

the definition here is: “decodable books are texts written for children that consist primarily of words they can read correctly using the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that they have learned (with the exception of a few unavoidable irregular words).”

and that’s a really important feature of decodable text: that it is made up of phonemes and graphemes that have previously been taught.

i’d like to emphasize the words specific and purposeful as well—specifically, purposefully designed text. why? we want to make sure that decodable text aligns with what we have already taught. they’re designed so that students can practice applying decodable skills to build fluency with both known patterns and words that allow them to then generalize to unknown words with similar patterns. this background is from dr. louisa moats—she wrote a really valuable booklet published by the world bank group in 2022—how children learn to read: toward evidence aligned lesson planning.

why is decodable text so important?

application in literacy

first, decodable text allows our students to apply the fine skills that they’re learning as they’re learning them. it allows them to really develop the decoding habit that will lead to accuracy, fluency, and ultimately mastery. in terms of accuracy, we want students to be able to orthographically map words, and that requires them to practice in order to build those neural systems. and, according to linnea ehri in her 2014 paper, orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning (scientific studies of reading, 2014), decoding is the facilitator of that orthographic mapping.

in comparison with leveled text, decodable text promotes the habit of attending to the letters in the word as the primary means of recognizing the word—that is from a study that was done way back in 1985 by juel and roper-schneider. they looked at students who were using leveled text versus students who were using decodable text and it was clear that the students using decodable text were really developing that habit of looking within the word.

nathaniel hansford, teacher, reading specialist, science of learning researcher, and author of scientific principles of teaching, studies the role of decodable texts in learning to read. providing guidance on the implications of the research on decodables for practice in the paper, “do kids need decodable texts to read?” (last edited 2024/02/10), hansford makes the recommendation:

“avoid predictable texts, as they may encourage bad habits like guessing at words.”

practice

practice could not be more important. we move from acquisition to accuracy to fluency, to comprehension, and the link from that accuracy to fluency is really that practice. we want to give kids practice in reading both familiar and new words with similar patterns.

confidence

finally, decodable text really gives our young novice readers confidence. i’m reading hidden potential, a wonderful book by adam grant, and he emphasizes that the research is really clear that the greatest factor in motivation is progress. decodable text allows children to know that they are progressing as real readers.

grant writes (on page 123): “of all the factors that have been studied, the strongest known force in daily motivation is a sense of progress.”

so decodable text is incredibly important.

i want to contrast this with the type of text that i might have used in my early years as a teacher.

here’s some text in a typical leveled reader, several weeks into kindergarten, perhaps…some kids would be given a book with this text to read during their reading instruction time.

i take pencils.

i take markers.

i take paper.

i take scissors…

here are my questions: is this student really reading? is this student unlocking those words? is she looking at the text and developing that decoding habit? does my early kindergartner know that the sc spelling pattern in scissors says /s/? does she know about the r-controlled pattern in scissors? does she know about the long e pattern in take? no, she’s early kindergarten. she hasn’t been taught these things so what she’s being encouraged to do is to memorize the pattern, look at the picture, and from those two, guess at what that word might be at the end of the pattern. these strategies build visual word forms in the right hemisphere, an area not well-suited for building the neural networks required for reading.

the use of this text, then, encourages our students to use pictures and patterns, and doesn’t form that all important decoding habit that we know is critical in forming those neural pathways for securing the alphabetic code, enhancing orthographic mapping for automaticity of word retrieval.

and, in fact, frankly, what we know now is that using text like this encourages kids to adopt the habits of what poor readers tend to do as opposed to solid, fluent readers.

what does some of the research say about decodable text? there are several studies and analyses about the use of decodable text. i mentioned the juel & roper-schneider comparison between first graders using leveled text and decodable text. let’s take a look at some other studies, starting with one by heidi mesmer.

the mesmer paper, text decodability and the first-grade reader, basically, is all about how the teaching and the text cannot be separated. i like to sum it up like this:

• the kind of text we put in front of beginning readers determines the strategies that they will use.
• first graders who were learning phonics and using highly decodable text were more likely to employ their letter-sound knowledge than those using less decodable text.
• these students tended to read more words accurately and need less help getting through a text.

another one is the cheathem and allor 2012 paper, the influence of decodability in early reading text on reading achievement: a review of the evidence. here’s an excerpt:

“collectively the results indicate that decodability is a critical characteristic of early reading text as it increases the likelihood that students will use a decoding strategy and results in immediate benefits, particularly with regard to accuracy.”

so keywords here are: decoding strategy and accuracy, two things we want to develop with our young readers.

now let’s look at wiley blevins. in an evaluation of the decodable text in scholastic phonics readers, blevins did some comparison with the first grade group, looking at students who were utilizing decodable text. his control group was using predictable and patterned text as well as popular books that were identified as only 35% decodable.  and he found in his comparison that those students who used that decodable text outperformed the other students in terms of accuracy; they scored better on a phonics assessment. they scored better in spelling, and they self-reported their increased enjoyment of reading because they were successful. i believe they were motivated because they were making progress, and of course let’s also remember you can’t love what you can’t do. so giving kids these rewards in terms of being able to read really does impact their motivation and the joy that they get from being a reader.

in the classroom observation results (page 8) in the report, blevins writes:

“as further evidence of the power of controlled text, classroom observations also revealed that children in the controlled text group were more confident in tackling difficult books for their read at-home reading choices. it was observed that children in the experimental group would examine the words in books before selecting a story to take home. conversely, children in the control group were observed to have difficulty choosing books with appropriate text for their reading level. the observers concluded that children in the controlled text group gained a greater confidence in their ability to decode the words in more challenging books.”

what makes a decodable text high quality?

so, to sum it up, here are some key features of what we call high quality, decodable text:

1. a high proportion of words with phonetically regular relationships between the letters and sounds—so that kids initially have those reliable hooks as they read the text
2. a close match between the phonetic elements in the text and what the reader has been taught
3. phonetic elements follow an evidence-aligned scope and sequence
4. cumulative decodability—in other words, what the students can decode in one book comes along into the next book with some new phonetic elements added. they’re always going from some of the known text into newly learned phonetic elements and securing what they’ve previously learned.
5. designed so that readers read the text without relying on the pictures—pictures play an important role in terms of meaning confirmation but they do not play an important role in terms of word recognition. so we want to make sure pictures are utilized properly.
6. text that has some natural sounding language
7. text that is engaging and appealing

in contrast, let’s consider an example of text that’s not engaging and appealing.

now, this is just an example of something i found on the internet. decodable text does not have to be like this:

mom has a big box.

mom has a big bag.

mom has a big wig.

who cares? right? so let’s contrast that with one of the books from our decodable duo series. this is part way into kindergarten. the students have been taught all their short vowels, so this book allows them to practice that. it’s called fed in bed. here’s the text (watch the webinar to see all the accompanying images).

the sun is up.

max, lin, and dad get up.

mom is not up yet.

max, lin, and dad have a job.

lin has a cup.

max has a bun and jam.

dad has a hot pan.

they mix and they fix.

they did a good job.

max, lin, and dad fed mom in bed.

so that, of course, as you can see, is engaging. it’s a real story about a little family. kids can get some enjoyment from reading that, because they will be successful. and it’s also very appealing.

best practices in early text use

sometimes one of the criticisms of decodable text is that it isn’t real literature. but remember, it isn’t meant to be. of course we want to have rich literature in our classrooms, as well as books with no decodable controls for our read-alouds and our shared reading. we want to use those trade books and picture books and wonderful fiction and nonfiction, because our children’s listening comprehension, as you probably know, is much greater than the reading comprehension up through about the middle school years. so it’s through these experiences—read-alouds and shared readings—that children gain that knowledge of the world and the vocabulary, and it helps to lay that blueprint for comprehension as well.

at the same time, we want to be explicitly and systematically teaching our children the decoding skills and then allowing them to apply those decoding skills using that cumulative, decodable text to build those neural connections for automaticity and fluency.

decodable text should be used for a short period of time, like “training wheels” according to mesmer. it’s not forever. it’s during that time when we’re really trying to secure the understanding of how that code works, how they blend those sounds together in order to read words, and how words flow into sentences—that kind of fragile time as beginning readers. it’s a scaffold. and once students have secured those skills, then they can read without those same scaffolds.

learn more

explore our new 95 decodable duo™ books here on our website. and to see a demo of decodable duo booksets and their unique patent-pending flip format with text-only on one side and illustrated text on the other, watch the webinar on demand.

are you interested in learning about how you can bring an effective and efficient structured literacy approach, grounded in the science of reading, to your school or district? contact us today.

watch now

our webinar, the power of decodables in learning to read: solid strategies for teaching is available to watch now.

phoneme blending

phoneme blending, or the ability to build words from individual sounds or phonemes, is a step towards understanding that whole words are made of sounds.

blending activity (using fingers in kindergarten and beyond)

1. teacher: say “_________.” students echo.
2. teacher: now, say the word slowly, stretching out one finger for each sound. students segment and extend a finger from their fist for each sound (moving left to right, starting with the thumb). right-handers use their writing hand palm down; left-handers turn their writing hand palm up so the hand unfolds in a left-to-right sequence.
3. once the correct sounds are segmented, students repeat the sequence of sounds on the fingers.
4. now blend the sounds and say the word. students say the word.

phoneme manipulation: addition, deletion, and substitution

as the name implies, phoneme manipulation is the ability to delete or substitute a given phoneme in any position within a word. for example, remove the /i/ in the word slip and replace it with /a/. now, you have the word slap.

while there is no evidence that mastery of phoneme manipulation is required for reading fluency, some experts suggest it is helpful for some students. also, practicing manipulation of sounds with letters can be helpful to reading and spelling.

addition: adding a phoneme to an existing word. if you start with the word top, and you add /s/, now you have stop. as students become more comfortable with this, they can add multiple phonemes simultaneously.

deletion: the opposition of addition. instead of adding a phoneme, you take a phoneme away. so if you start with the word glove and you take away /g/, now you have the word love.

substitution: this is a bit like combining both addition and deletion. you first take away a phoneme and then add another—creating an entirely different word. if you start with the word cape, and delete the /k/ (leaving ape), and then you add /sh/, you end up with a completely new word: shape.

check out our post on the blog for specific lesson plans or activities.

what to include in your phonemic awareness lesson plans

when it comes to phonemic awareness lesson plans, structure and explicit instruction are the most important factors. for all students learning literacy skills, employing direct instruction and offering an “i do, we do, you do” approach helps students to:

1. see and hear what they need to do
2. practice the skill with a teacher for immediate feedback and redirection if necessary
3. practice independently to build confidence and ownership of each skill

when looking for lesson plans to use in your classroom, you should look for the following components:

• lessons that are aligned with evidence. any instruction you bring into your classroom should be aligned with evidence—meaning it’s supported by the body of evidence we call the science of reading.
• lessons that are scripted. while there are some teachers who don’t like to be required to use scripted lessons, the amount of work expected of teachers means that having a scripted literacy curriculum allows them to establish routines and systems quickly, and supports teachers in learning the instructional dialogue of the lesson. scripted phonemic awareness lessons help both students and teachers know what to expect each day and offers a common language that removes the cognitive load of finding and planning lessons and activities.
• lessons that are structured and sequential and allow for modeling, guided practice, and independent practice

teaching phonemic awareness lessons

understanding the importance of teaching phonemic awareness is the first step. but when delivering the instruction, there are some strategies that will go a long way in maximizing your time and efforts.

1. primary focus should be on teaching students what they hear with each sound and how it should feel in their mouth. there are so many phonemes in the english language that it can feel confusing for students to be able to articulate them all in the beginning. teaching what students should hear with each sound and how it feels in their mouth and throat when a phoneme is “voiced” or “unvoiced,” helps them understand the articulation and auditory qualities of the phoneme. additionally, teachers can first offer a photo to show how the mouth forms each phoneme, and then a mirror so students can see what shape their mouth makes when they say /p/ or  /b/ compared to /m/ or /n/.
2. connect phonemes to letters (graphophonemic connections) to benefit students when learning to read and write.  phonemic awareness instruction should always begin with just the sounds in order to help children focus on the phoneme sequences in spoken words. typically, linking letter knowledge and phonemes to read and spell words can begin soon thereafter, depending on the students’ proficiency with phonemes; however, phonemic awareness skills should continue to be taught in k-1 (and for older students as indicated) as a distinct strand of the lesson that parallels phonics instruction. when phonemic awareness instruction is connected to the representative letters or graphemes, it helps children with orthographic mapping and makes it easier to retain and recognize words when they see them again.
3. make it multisensory. research on working memory and cognition shows us that there are benefits of multisensory experiences when teaching different literacy skills. when students simultaneously incorporate more than one sense (i.e., writing with a pencil or air writing with their whole arm while saying the sound or phoneme, it activates multiple parts of the brain (whole brain learning) than when just saying a sound or just writing the representative letter(s).
4. i do, we do, you do model. when you offer a gradual release instruction model, students have the opportunity to see a skill first modeled for them explicitly, then to practice with the instructor, receiving immediate feedback and/or reteaching if needed, and last, the opportunity to practice on their own—increasing confidence, independence and student ownership of their learning. the repeated practice of a skill also increases the chance of retention.

the final word

phonemic awareness is a subcategory of phonological awareness. while these two terms are often confused with each other, they are part of the same learning process and continuum. direct, structured, and sequential phonemic awareness lessons are critical to a child’s eventual reading success.

95 percent group recently launched their 95 phonemic awareness suite™ — a new, comprehensive phonemic awareness solution that includes tier 1 instruction, assessment, differentiated tier 2 instruction, and professional learning—all aligned to provide a consistent instructional dialogue for teachers and students. aligned with the latest research on phonemic awareness, it’s everything needed to build critical foundational skills and set students up for reading success!

95 phonemic awareness suite components include:

• tier 1: 95 pocket phonemic awareness™, 50 weeks of lessons, each 10 minutes per day (k-1)
• assessment: 95 phonemic awareness screener for intervention™
• tier 2: 95 phonemic awareness intervention resource™, lessons cover alphabetic and phonemic awareness, with kid lips instruction built-in
• professional learning for teachers and reading specialists

sources

1. ashby, j., mcbride, m., naftel, s., o’brien, e., paulson, l. h., kilpatrick, d. a, & moats, l. c. (2023). teaching phoneme awareness in 2023: a guide for educators.
2. ashby, j., mcbride, m., naftel, s., o’brien, e., paulson, l. h., kilpatrick, d. a, & moats, l. c. (2023). teaching phoneme awareness in 2023: a guide for educators.
3. davidson, marcia, usaid, and global education summit. “scripted reading lessons and evidence for their efficacy.” united states agency for international development, 2015. accessed january 30, 2024. https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/davidson.pdf.
4. national reading panel (u.s.) & national institute of child health and human development (u.s.). (2000)
5. castiglioni-spalten, m. & ehri l.c., (2003). phonemic awareness instruction: contribution of articulatory segmentation to novice beginners’ reading and spelling. scientific studies of reading, 7(1), p. 25.
6. farrell, mary l., white, nancy cushen; multisensory teaching of basic language skills, ch. 2, p.48
7. teaching to the whole brain. (2021, june 2). ascd. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/teaching-to-the-whole-brain
8. the reading league. (2022, june). https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/the-reading-league-curriculum-evaluation-guidelines-2022.pdf. retrieved january 31, 2024, https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/the-reading-league-curriculum-evaluation-guidelines-2022.pdf

phonemes play a crucial role in spoken language, influencing pronunciation and distinguishing between words, while graphemes are fundamental to the written language. they are the visual symbols that convey the sound a phoneme makes.

benefits of phoneme segmentation

mastering phoneme segmentation carries many benefits, specifically with respect to decoding and encoding skills. decoding is the ability to convert written symbols (graphemes) into speech. by breaking down words into individual phonemes, learners can sound out words and begin to recognize patterns, such as long vowel spelling patterns as found in cake, /k/ /ā/ /k/ (e), which will allow them to build greater automaticity leading to increased reading fluency.3

similarly, encoding is the translation of spoken language to graphemes. when learners can identify and manipulate individual phonemes, they have the building blocks for spelling and writing skills.

the ability to segment and blend phonemes supports the development of decoding; when students decode with accuracy and automaticity, they develop reading fluency, laying the groundwork for literary success. phoneme segmentation and blending are also critical to spelling and writing. finally, phoneme segmentation instruction can support struggling readers, which will be examined in more detail below.

segmentation strategies

there are several practical and engaging strategies teachers can employ in the classroom to support the development of phoneme segmentation.

explicit instruction on phoneme segmentation starts with simple examples such as cat or dog. teachers will highlight the distinct sounds within each word (k/ /a/ /t/ or /d/ /o/ /g/). combining explicit instruction with a multisensory approach, such as finger tapping, will support learners in identifying the individual sounds they hear within each word. for instance, cat can be tapped out using the pointer finger of the right hand against the thumb for /k/, then the middle finger against the thumb for /a/, and the ring finger against the thumb for /t/.

incorporating visual aids will further support the development and understanding of phoneme segmentation. 95 percent group utilizes a “sound-spelling mapping routine,” either with or without chips, to support phoneme awareness and connecting phonemes to graphemes.

for example, for the word “wig,” students would do the following:

• say the word
• finger stretch (or tap) the sounds
• count the sounds
• draw around the boxes
• pull down one sound at a time

• write the letters below each box

• say the word

the use of manipulatives or movement engages the students further by making the lesson more interactive.

95 percent group provides additional games and strategies that can be used to teach phoneme segmentation and phonemic awareness.

phoneme blending

a student’s ability to identify and isolate the sounds inside of a word is a critical skill in reading readiness. equally as important is the ability to look at a series of sounds (/k/ /a/ /t/) and blend them together. the first step to doing this might be to elongate each sound as you say it, drawing it out until it “blends” into the next sound. at first, children will need to do this work out loud. eventually, we help them understand that the blending of sounds happens in your head and, with practice, becomes automatic.

differentiation and assessment in phoneme awareness instruction

differentiating instruction based on individual needs and of students is crucial for creating an inclusive and effective learning environment. recognizing and addressing each learner’s unique strengths and challenges enhances engagement, facilitates deeper understanding, and promotes overall academic success.

throughout explicit instruction and group work, teachers will regularly observe students to gauge their level of engagement, participation, and comprehension. using a formal assessment tool, teachers can implement structured observations using checklists to identify specific areas of progress and achievement, as well as students who would benefit from implementing intervention strategies.

phoneme segmentation in action

phoneme segmentation can easily be integrated into classroom activities, often incorporating multisensory instruction, which will engage the students and encourage a deeper understanding of the concepts.

in 95 percent group’s phonemic awareness suite™, educators will find a number of activities designed to meet students where they are and help teachers prepare them for the next steps in literacy acquisition.

some of the components include:

• core: 95 pocket pa: the powerful, portable phonemic awareness solution for k-1 readers.
• phonemic awareness screener for intervention™: allows educators to easily pinpoint skill deficits and personalize instruction for each child
• phonemic awareness intervention resource for educators:  a go-to source for classroom-ready lessons on alphabetic and phonemic awareness, specially designed for intervention groups.

conclusion

phoneme segmentation, a core component of phonemic awareness, involves breaking words into individual sounds, or phonemes, forming the foundation for reading and writing. phonemes and graphemes differ in that graphemes are the letters or groups of letters that spell the phoneme. mastering phoneme segmentation is crucial for decoding and encoding skills, leading to reading fluency and improved comprehension, in addition to spelling and writing.

practical classroom strategies encompass explicit instruction and multisensory approaches, employing routines like sound-spelling mapping. differentiation based on students’ needs is essential and made possible with ongoing assessments that can guide interventions. integrating phoneme segmentation into activities like scavenger hunts and storybook hunts, fosters engagement.

advanced applications extend to morphology, etymology, and phonological interventions, providing profound linguistic insights. phoneme segmentation serves as a scaffold for language development, supporting essential skills foundational to reading and writing, ensuring learners are equipped for advanced literacy development in later years.

sources

1. “building phonemic awareness with phoneme isolation.” readwritethink.org. december 19, 2023. https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/building-phonemic-awareness
2. “evidence-based practices for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness.” 2019. regional educational laboratory. december 20, 2023. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/regions/appalachia/blogs/pdf/coachingmemo_508.pdf
3. “explicit intervention in phonemic awareness.” all ohio literacy. december 19, 2023. https://allohioliteracy.org/learning-modules/decision-rules-flowchart-interventions/explicit-intervention-phonemic-awareness/.
4. kilpatrick, d.a. (2015). essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc.
5. “phonemic awareness and phonics for reading and spelling.” 2017. government of western australia department of education. december 19, 2023. https://myresources.education.wa.edu.au/docs/default-source/resources/phonics/pdlp1001.pdf?sfvrsn=28e48d7f_3.
6. “word morphology.” 2020. victoria state government department of education. december 19, 2023. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/readingviewing/pages/litfocuswordmorph.aspx

building syllable awareness skills

when children first start to recognize syllables, using movement, rhythm, or music wherever possible is a great way to help them really feel or embody syllabication. syllable sensitivity is enhanced through language play that is a natural part of preschool and kindergarten.    there are various ways to incorporate this into classroom activities, small group work or one-on-one lessons.

here are a few ways to engage in language play to support phonological sensitivity, including syllable awareness:

1. encourage active listening when reading aloud to students. ask students to hold up their thumb or their hand every time they hear a certain characteristic of phonological awareness—a great example is hearing words that rhyme.
2. building on this activity, you can stop and think while reading aloud. example, “hmmm i just heard the word box. i wonder what words rhyme with box? put your thumb up if you know a word that rhymes with box!” then, you can call on different students to show what they know.
3. clapping, snapping, stomping, or jumping to identify how many syllables are in a word. example: how many syllables are in the word “stuck?” have students clap/jump one time for the one-syllable word. how many syllables are in the word “pencil?” have students stomp two times for the two-syllable word.
4. tapping out syllables in names. while lining up for recess or to go home, use a drum or surface to tap out the syllables or a bell or triangle to make a sound for each as you call each student’s name to line up. example, “mad-e-line,” tapping each syllable as you say it. “o-liv-i-a.” have students repeat after you or tell you how many syllables are in their name as they arrive in the line.
5. underlining and marking each syllable type (older students). have kids divide words into syllables and mark where the vowels are short or long. this helps students see where words divide and how to properly pronounce them. bonus points if they can identify what type of syllable it is.

syllable awareness across curriculum

like other foundational reading skills, it’s important for children to get practice with syllable awareness outside of just their core reading instruction. there are many ways to incorporate working on syllables during different parts of a student’s day—whether in kindergarten or middle school.

reading and writing poetry

writing poetry is a great example of how educators can scaffold syllable awareness. for younger children, teachers can read aloud, or children can read a simple passage and look for words that are in the same word family. alternatively, children can raise 1 or 2 or 3 fingers etc., when they hear a multisyllabic word.

for older students, writing haiku is an excellent way to draw attention to syllables. haiku requires three lines of 5, 7, and then 5 syllables, respectively. by adjusting the topic of the poems, haiku can be integrated into any subject area, from science to history to foreign language.

multisyllabic word identification and syllable division

a great activity for students reading text that contains more sophisticated or academic language is to pull out the multisyllabic words from the text and have students work on syllable division with that set of words. the instructor can choose words ahead of time or the students can identify those words that have 3 or more syllables or that they don’t recognize or understand.

an example might be the word “photosynthesis.” once students have been explicitly taught syllibication, there are different activities they can do for independent practice. for example:

1. have students highlight multisyllabic words as they read a passage
2. then they can write each word in their notebook or on a sticky note.
3. then they can mark the places where the word should divide into syllables: (pho·to·syn·the·sis) and read aloud to see if it sounds correct. sometimes hearing a word aloud that students already have in their vocabulary can help them decide if they’ve divided it correctly or need to try again.

using music to support syllable awareness

when we listen to music, it’s common to tap our feet or nod our head to the beat. you can have the students shift their awareness from the beat of the music to the “beat” or rhythm of the words. this will allow students to understand that music is really a lot like poetry and requires understanding syllabication and the flow of language to incorporate lyrics into songs.

supporting children at different levels

while the order in which literacy skills are developed is generally the same from student to student, the rate or pace at which students acquire skills can vary greatly. it’s important to recognize that how skills are presented and received can be a helpful anchor to organize your instructional strategy.

some children may understand syllabication by hearing words and clapping the syllables. others may need to have more physical feedback in order to feel it in their bodies. still other students may learn best by listening to music or beating the rhythm of words on a drum. the important part is that they find what works best for them and that we as educators meet them where they are to take them where they need to go.

the final word

syllable awareness is both one of the very first skills children develop as they begin to understand the nuances of spoken language, and it’s also a more complex skill as they work with written language and reading to learn academically. the foundations of language acquisition set the stage for reading and writing success; every step on the way to a strong start is critical.

95 phonemic awareness suite™ begins this work with the youngest students, helping those who need extra support in learning the first foundational skills to prepare them for phonics instruction. for students in the mid to upper elementary grades, there are products like the multisyllable routine cards package, which explicitly teaches the six syllable types, and 95 vocabulary surge™, which teaches students how to break apart words into their parts.

sources

1. moats, louisa. “how spelling supports reading.” american federation of teachers, 2005. accessed january 19, 2024. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/moats.pdf.
2. reading rockets. “six syllable types | reading rockets,” n.d. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/spelling-and-word-study/articles/six-syllable-types.

to begin, i’d like to clarify the relationship between the science of reading and structured literacy—because i think the difference between these terms is not always understood.

many people have asked me, “how do i do the science of reading?”

here’s my answer: you can’t really do the science of reading because the science of reading is a body of research that informs our practice. but structured literacy is a collection of practices that are designed to enact the science of reading research. so let’s talk about six key strategies for implementing structured literacy.

1. diagnostic assessments

effective, reliable, valid, diagnostic assessments are essential. because the thing about structured literacy is that you have to know where the students are at any given moment. universal [screening] is important and valuable of course—but universal screeners offer a broad stroke approach to assessment. universal screening allows us to know who is at, above, and below benchmark, but there is not enough data to show why and what to do about it. in other words, universal screeners answer the “who” but diagnostic assessments tell us the “why” and “how.”

but i think to enact a structured literacy approach, you have to be really diagnostic about where kids are at. ongoing, finer-grained diagnostic assessments let you monitor student progress in order to provide additional practice and scaffolding to close gaps quickly when they are identified.

2. an explicit approach to lessons

the second strategy is to utilize an explicit approach to lessons. i would say one tip on that explicit approach is this: frame your lessons around the “i do, we do, you do” gradual release—direct instruction (i do), followed by guided instruction or practice (we do), and then independent practice (you do). when you think about learning in general, a gradual release model makes sense. we need to understand what we are learning in a very direct way with modeling or demonstration (teacher “i do”), then we need time to practice the learning with a coach at our side (“we do”) before we tackle the practice ourselves. take any learned skill and this model works.

3. a sequential approach to foundational skills

a third strategy is to utilize instructional resources that follow a sequential approach to the foundational skills because there really is a predictable progression that kids go through as they develop as readers. for a simple example, you don’t teach long vowels before short vowels. you want to go from least complex to most complex.

here is an example of this strategy. i always tell kindergarten teachers to focus first on basic cvc words. it gives students a reliability on which to trust decoding, because with all cvc words you can go left to right through the word; the vowel is short (with the exception of the irregular words). you’re teaching your kindergartners: yes, you can look at the word, sound out the word left to right, and there’s a reliable system. once that’s internalized, then you can add the more complex systems like a long vowel pattern—you can’t always go left to right through a long vowel pattern word, right? so, i think it’s important to utilize resources that follow a sequence that matches that predictable progression that students go through in their development as readers.

4. frequent progress monitoring

another key strategy is to progress monitor frequently—ideally, every one to three weeks—because progress monitoring is less about students and more about our instruction. frequent progress monitoring allows you to monitor if your instruction is getting the desired results. and if your students are not exiting out of intervention, then you know your instruction has to change. you need to progress monitor frequently because we want to keep kids out of what i call the “cul de sac of intervention” where there’s no exit because they’re just going around and around.

5. strategic coaching to improve teachers’ practice

a fifth essential strategy is to constantly reflect on and improve your own practice. the best way to do that is with strategic coaching. i like to remind people that teaching is only one of the professions in which coaching is required. coaching is for anybody in any profession that involves a routine of practices. you really need a coach to get better at it. and so, employing strategic coaching is a powerful way to reflect on and improve your practice.

here is an example of what that looks like. the coach is someone who can either model a lesson, or co-teach, or observe you doing a lesson, and then provide feedback for you. the coach can also help you establish your standards of practice. i think it’s always a red flag if someone just comes in and says “here’s a broad checklist and here’s what i’m going to be looking for,” as opposed to sitting down with a teacher like a coach would and attentively asking, “what are areas that you want to improve upon? let me help you reflect on your practice. and then let’s come together and think about what are some steps that i can help you to enact.”

ideally, teachers would have in-district or even in-building coaches and many places do. they have in-building coaches who are reflecting, not just on product implementation, but specifically about instruction. and they are looking for things like clarity of language; they’re looking for things like student response and engagement. we need kids to have a lot of responses every hour. so those are instructional coaching points rather than product coaching. product coaching is important too, but these are two different things. in an ideal world, you would have a building level or district level coach who would come in quite frequently, and just help you reflect on and improve your instructional practice.

6. a culture of continuous improvement

for a successful and sustainable implementation of structured literacy, you have to build a culture of continuous improvement. what’s that look like? i think you have to build a culture that emphasizes “we’re all in this together.” and frankly, i think that starts with having courageous conversations around data. i think one of the most critical elements for managing change and continuous improvement is to have fearless conversations about data—where we are looking at our data and confronting any gaps we discover in the data.

confronting gaps in data is not about pitting teacher against teacher. it’s saying that we as a community within our schools have to have conversations around our kids. i’ve never met a leader who hasn’t been able to move the needle with teachers when he or she starts talking about how “these are our kids. this is what we want for our community, our future community members. right now, let’s be honest—we’re not reaching all of our kids. so let’s collectively come together and think about what we need to do to help all our kids to succeed.”

sometimes that courageous conversation about confronting data is not about looking at the data as a whole because there are a lot of districts that look great if you look at the average. but we need to go deeper and get specific by looking at all students, all subgroups. when we say we want literacy for all, we really mean all.

let’s get real.

resources from 95 percent group

we have worked with school districts and educators across the country to unlock the power of literacy for every child. we look forward to sharing with you what we’ve learned, along with best practices and resources you can bring to the classroom. stay up to date on the latest research, insights, and resources in our field at thescienceofreading.com.

here are a few related resources to help you take the next steps in implementing structured literacy.

structured literacy

insights from thought leaders and resources to help you bridge knowledge and practice as you bring structured literacy to your school or district.
explore here.

science of reading 2.0: implementation made easy

the next generation of the science of reading connects research about reading and learning to help educators implement effective literacy instruction.
download this easy-to-use guide here.

diagnostic screeners

diagnostic screeners help pinpoint skill deficits and personalize instruction to meet each child where they are. our screeners map to specific lessons to efficiently group students and close skill gaps.
see the phonological awareness screener for intervention™ (pasi) and the phonics screener for intervention™ (psi™).

professional learning services

explore professional learning courses and workshops, science of reading symposia, and webinars here.

learn more

this is part of our insights from laura stewart series. read her previous insight here. are you interested in learning about how you can bring an effective and efficient structured literacy approach, grounded in the science of reading, to your school or district? contact 95 percent group today.

science of reading

so what is the science of reading? the science of reading is a dynamic body of convergent evidence that informs effective instruction in all areas of literacy development. the research on reading draws from multiple fields including cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and developmental psychology. the reading league provides one of the best definitions of the science of reading in their science of reading—defining guide (available for download here, in english and spanish).

the reading league definition

“the science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. this research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. the science of reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties.”

what is structured literacy and is it related to the science of reading?

you might have heard the term structured literacy used to describe an approach to reading instruction. the term originated with the international dyslexia association® (ida®) in 2016 to differentiate reading instruction and programs that are truly informed by the science of reading from those that are not. a structured literacy approach is grounded in evidence-based instruction—teachers and literacy specialists use a scope and sequence which dictates the order in which concepts and content are taught using explicit and systematic, cumulative instruction.

in addition to the typical broad stroke universal screeners, structured literacy uses ongoing, finer-grained diagnostic assessments to monitor student progress in order to provide additional practice and scaffolding to close gaps quickly when they are identified.

the ida offers a short primer, a 25-page introductory guide, and an infographic on structured literacy here:

• a short primer with a downloadable pdf
• structured literacy: an introductory guide
• infographic—structured literacy: an approach grounded in the science of reading

it’s important to note that the science of reading and structured literacy do not refer to particular programs for students or for teacher 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 . many well known programs such as orton-gillingham method, lindamood phoneme sequencing program (lips), and others implement structured literacy in their approaches. this is the case as well for specific programs for teacher 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 —for example, the letrs (language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling) professional learning program, or 95 percent group’s teacher 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 . all of the above are informed by research evidence.

ida’s structured literacy: an introductory guide explains the terms explicit, systematic, and screening and monitoring (p. 3) in the context of structured literacy:

“explicit” means that the teacher clearly explains and models key skills, with well-chosen examples; children are not expected to develop these skills based mainly on exposure and incidental learning opportunities.

“systematic” means that there is a planned sequence of instruction, with important prerequisite skills taught before more advanced skills, and with care taken not to introduce skills in a way that is unintentionally confusing. for instance, children are not expected to decode or spell complex words before they have learned to decode and spell simpler words; and teachers avoid introducing highly confusable phonics elements (such as b and p, or multiple short vowel sounds) simultaneously…

educators screen students and monitor their progress, using data to promptly identify children who need help, as well as to inform core instruction and interventions. for example, if many children in a school or district need intervention for vocabulary weaknesses or decoding problems, this is a sign that core instruction in those areas requires more emphasis or improvement.

what is balanced literacy and is it related to the science of reading and structured literacy?

the term and approach called “balanced literacy” emerged in the 1990s as a response to serious critiques of the whole language approach that was widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s by school districts across the country. whole language is a philosophy about teaching reading and writing, with origins that go back several decades. it is still widely in use throughout the us despite strong evidence today that its approach fails far too many students.

balanced literacy added minimal guidance in phonics to the whole language approach—attempting to ”balance” whole language with phonics. it focuses on components such as reading aloud, whole class shared reading, small group guided reading, and independent reading. balanced literacy proponents share a belief that reading is a natural process that requires minimal explicit instruction. this is in direct contradiction to what the science of reading has demonstrated.

senior correspondent and producer emily hanford produced the program hard words—why aren’t kids being taught to read? for american public radio in 2018 and followed this up in 2022 with the six-part series, sold a story. in these programs, hanford spells out how and why so many schools still use balanced literacy despite what the science shows about how children learn to read.

an informative webinar and panel discussion

understanding the science of reading and structured literacy—webinar and panel discussion with dr. susan hall, retired co-founder of 95 percent group, illinois educators, and the reading league illinois will help you gain a clear picture of the key elements required for literacy success. dr. hall and the panel introduce you to the scientific concepts and research behind structured literacy and supply further resources.

support for evaluating curriculum

how can you evaluate if a curriculum or approach is aligned with the scientific evidence base of how children learn to read? the reading league has prepared curriculum evaluation guidelines designed to highlight non-aligned practices in the areas of:

• word recognition
• language comprehension
• reading comprehension
• writing
• assessment

they also provide a curriculum evaluation guidelines reviewer workbook to help curriculum review teams record their evaluations. you can download it here.

what needs to change?

school districts and schools across the country are taking heed of what the science of reading research identifies about how best to teach reading. they’re committing to making the necessary changes to radically improve literacy instruction. several states have adopted legislation and policies that require all literacy instruction to be grounded in scientifically-based methods. according to an edsource post by writer john fensterwald (march, 2023), colorado, mississippi, tennessee, and connecticut have created comprehensive early literacy plans as their literacy road maps. they require or incentivize districts to train teachers and adopt textbooks tied to the science of reading research. new york city, the nation’s largest district, announced in 2022 that all districts must implement curricula that are based in the science of reading.

we still have a long way to go to arrive at a place where “95% or more of students can learn to read when provided with high quality, evidence-aligned instruction.” numerous experts in the science of reading call for significant changes in schools of education and 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 for teachers, principals, and school and district administrators, and ongoing coaching support for teachers in the science of reading. there is consensus among the literacy experts that a culture change is required.

schools of education

schools of education have been siloed from researchers in the neighboring cognitive science and neuroscience departments on campus. typically, deans and faculty in education schools have not kept up with the research. the reading league answers this question in their frequently asked questions:

don’t colleges/universities provide teachers with this knowledge during their preparation programs?

not necessarily. much of the science of reading comes from disciplines outside of schools of education (e.g., neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive psychology, etc.) therefore, professors who teach in schools of education are often unfamiliar with the scientific evidence base.

emily hanford’s work on hard words revealed:

“the prevailing approaches to reading instruction in american schools are inconsistent with basic things scientists have discovered about how children learn to read. many educators don’t know the science, and in some cases actively resist it. the resistance is the result of beliefs about reading that have been deeply held in the educational establishment for decades, even though those beliefs have been proven wrong by scientists over and over again.

most teachers nationwide are not being taught reading science in their teacher preparation programs because many deans and faculty in colleges of education either don’t know the science or dismiss it.”

teacher 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛

districts and schools doing successful implementations of the science of reading report how 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 and ongoing coaching in the science of reading is essential for teachers, and also for principals and administrators who need to understand the research and knowledge base as well.

ida’s structured literacy: an introductory guide (p. 15-16) reports:

studies have repeatedly shown that licensed teachers, including both general and special educators who have been recently trained, often lack knowledge about phonemic awareness and phonics; the appropriate role of context cues in reading (e.g., to determine word meanings, not to guess at words in decoding); common types of reading difficulties such as dyslexia; effective methods of assessment; and research-based interventions (e.g., brady et al., 2009; moats, 1994, 1999; moats & foorman, 2003; spear- swerling & cheesman, 2012; washburn, joshi, & binks-cantrell, 2011).

ida has written research-based knowledge and practice standards (kps for teachers of reading. ida defines kps as “the knowledge and skills that all teachers of reading should possess to teach all students to read proficiently.”

the report teaching reading is rocket science, 2020: what expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do by louisa c. moats, edd, explains why “the preparation and 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 of teachers who teach reading and writing must be more rigorous and better aligned with decades of reading science” and outlines how to get there.

professional learning is an important strategy to support successful implementation of structured literacy in the classroom. employing an ongoing, regular coaching strategy helps teachers reflect on and improve their practice while ensuring implementation happens well and with fidelity, and that instruction is effective and sustainable.

the 95 percent group uniquely supports professional learning with a range of offerings and up-to-date knowledge about how the brain processes text, informed by two decades of thought leadership in the science of reading.

95 percent group resources for 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛

• 世界杯足球2022亚洲预选赛 courses – choose to take online courses, or bring courses to your school or district in person.
• science of reading + 95 phonics core program workshops – gain grade-level expertise in virtual workshops that combine the latest science of reading research with best implementation practices for using the tier 1 95 phonics core program®.
• science of reading symposia – attend regional events to expand your network and gain valuable insights.
• literacy webinars – join experts and gain insight on current literacy topics. build your knowledge and leadership capacity.

implementing science of learning: success stories and best practices

seeing the success factors and best practices of states, districts, individual schools, and teachers that have implemented reading instruction and practice aligned with the science of learning is an essential part of making the culture change that’s necessary and nurturing courageous literacy leaders to do the work. we’ve put together a few exemplars who share their knowledge and experiences—from a small school of 590 students to a 4-school rural district to a major urban county with 59 schools.

school districts and schools implementing science of reading

fairfax school district, kern county, california

4 schools, 2688 students

best practices for implementing 95 phonics core program: lessons learned from a california school district

david mack, edd, chief administrator of business services has worn many hats in the fairfax school district—from math teacher to school principal. he did his dissertation on the topic improving fidelity of implementation of a tier i phonics program: an improvement science study. david mack shares his research, his experience in the district, and what he’s learned about best practices in implementation of the science of reading. read the post.

val verde unified school district, moreno valley, california

21 schools, 20,000 students

spotlight california: driving momentum for systemic change

schools in val verde were facing several challenges in improving student reading outcomes and have been on a journey to strategically implement science of reading practice in their classrooms for a number of years. val verde’s journey highlights the importance of evidence-based, data-driven instruction, ongoing support, and a commitment to equitable education for all students. aimee garcia, val verde k-12 district director of education services, has this to say about a consequence of not applying the science of reading: “the scope and sequence of a program is essential—if everyone is choosing to do their own thing, we are unintentionally creating an equity problem because we can’t guarantee that all students will receive instruction on the skills they need at the time they need it.” read the post.

fulton county schools, atlanta, georgia

59 schools, 90,000 students

science of reading is the roadmap

for years, decisions about reading curriculum were left to the discretion of individual schools in fulton county. jennifer burton, fulton county’s director of literacy, weighed in on this idea: “this resulted in a hodgepodge of balanced literacy-based programs, not backed by the science of reading, that clearly weren’t reaching all students,” she said. when you have many school leaders all making different decisions, it becomes difficult to have clear communication and one guiding direction. the district needed one program based in the science of reading: a literacy program to implement across all of their elementary schools in order to all move in the same direction towards reading proficiency. read the post.

explore more school stories here.

additional resources from 95 percent group

structured literacy

insights from thought leaders and resources to help you bridge knowledge and practice as you bring structured literacy to your school or district.

explore here.

science of reading 2.0: implementation made easy

the next generation of the science of reading connects research about reading and learning to help educators implement effective literacy instruction.

download this easy-to-use guide here.

efficacy studies

efficacy studies designed with guidance from the every student succeeds act (essa), to meet the highest levels of evidence

read studies here.

we can all make a difference

every child has the right to read and to read well. at the same time, teachers have the right to teach their students to read based on the most up-to-date knowledge about how the brain processes text. and parents and caregivers have the right to know and understand the research that shows that 95 percent or more of young people can learn to read when provided with high quality, evidence-aligned instruction. we can all make a difference in ensuring that our children and our students have the support and skills they need for success.

learn more

95 phonics core program® provides explicit, systematic, and cumulative tier 1 phonics instruction for the whole class. it is strategically designed to reduce or prevent intervention needs before they arise. in 30 minutes a day, the program builds critical phonics skills through explicit instruction to develop strong readers, k-5.

95 phonemic awareness suite™ is a proven set of resources that equips your teachers with professional learning and consistent but differentiated instruction for students receiving tier 1 and tier 2 instruction, and assessments that pinpoint deficits and map them to specific lessons proven to close those gaps.

95 literacy intervention system™ is a school and district-level resource that provides educators with the tools and data they need to make informed decisions that move students toward skill mastery more quickly. the 95 literacy intervention system combines assessment data, grouping tools, and resource recommendations into one powerful system designed to bring about systemic improvement in literacy outcomes.

are you interested in learning about how you can bring an effective and efficient structured literacy approach, grounded in the science of reading, to your school or district? contact 95 percent group today.